Wife forced to remarry husband who threw acid into her face

A WOMAN whose unfaithful husband threw acid in her face after she divorced him has now been coerced into remarrying her violent former partner.

Nurbanu divorced her husband of 18 years eight days before he returned and threw acid in her face in Shatkhira in south west Bangladesh. She had originally ended the marriage after she found him with another woman.

"My husband went into hiding. After 10 months he was caught and jailed for a year," she told .

Nurbanu's husband spent 12 months in jail for disfiguring her. He had been on the run for ten months before authorities caught up with him, but after his release his family coerced her into re-marrying him.

"His mother paid for his release on bail," she said. "She made me sign an affidavit to have him released. She used my sons to convince me to marry him again."

The acid attack has left the 36-year-old mother with horrific facial injuries. She is now blind and unable to even prepare a meal for herself.

"People would think a husband would take care of a blind wife. But this doesn't happen," she said adding that her husband still regularly beats her. "This is how my days go by," she said.

Nurbanu  is one of thousands of women in Bangladesh who have had acid flung at them by a relative or partner due to domestic arguments, financial woes or even rejected marriage proposals.

Violence against women remains an issue, according to Monira Rahman, the CEO of the acid survivors association in Bangladesh.

"Having worked with survivors of acid and petrol attacks in Bangladesh for the past 14 years, I know that violence is a major obstacle for women's ability to access their rights," Ms Rahman said.

"Until women have real equality, they will continue to not only suffer the most from poverty but also be subjected to violence."

While government efforts have seen a decline in the number of acid attacks which has fallen from 500 in 2002 to 111 in 2011, there is still more work to be done Ms Rahman said.